Hypercorrectness

If you sound like you know what you're talking about, people will assume you do.

   No one is immune from the malady known as hypercorrectness, including the President of the United States.
   In an effort to appear fully expert in grammatical usage, people go too far, substituting terms that are actually wrong.
   Example: A dispatch from the White House said, "Today, I will announce the person whom I believe is eminently qualified to sit on the Supreme Court." Signed, President Barack Obama.
   Problem: The pronoun should be "who," not "whom."
   Proof: Take out the phrase "I believe" and you get the phrase "the person who is eminently qualified ..."
   Why: The pronoun "whom" indicates the objective case, and compares to the pronoun "him." Note the letter "m" in both cases.
   One possible cause of the mistake is that the writer's mind focused on the phrase, "I will announce .... him" rather than the following idea that "he is qualified."
   Even better would be to write the sentence this way: "I will announce the name of the person who is eminently qualified ... "

   It's a common problem, trading what some folks feel is the more prestigious word whom for what they consider the mundane who.
   That may explain it, but it does not excuse it.

   With all the resources available to any occupant of the White House, one would think a skilled grammarian, or at least a competent editor, would be available to the Commander in Chief.

   By the way, the nominee is Merrick Garland. (Two R's, please. Rule Number One: Get the name right.)